The True Story of Sleeping Beauty
by TodayIsYesterday'sTomorrow
Summary: What if everyone was wrong, Sleeping Beauty was never cursed? What truly happened? Well here is the real story, and its not a history written by the winners...Oneshot from 'evil faery's' POV


**Hi guys, here is a little story I found that I wrote years and years ago. It's my first fanfic so please, please review. Also, I want to acknoweledge 'Be Rose'. Thankyou so much for everything, I really appreciate it.**

I'm sure you've heard the story of Sleeping Beauty. Everybody has, and it's wrong. It's all a lie. I didn't do half the things they said I did and the other half was just badly misunderstood. The real story is different. It goes like this…

It was a normal day. I was in my library, dusting my rows upon rows of thick, heavy spell books. I had almost finished when I felt strong magic vibes radiating from my crystal ball.

I hurriedly walked over to it, thinking it might be my poor mother, who was suffering from a nasty dose of influenza. However, instead of seeing my mother's humble mansion in my crystal ball I saw the grand Throne Room of the King and Queen's palace!

They were discussing the Christening of their little baby girl, Briar Rose.

"Who else are we inviting?" the king quietly asked.

"The faeries of course" the queen answered, and then, the image faded…

As I went back to my dusting I was in a fantastic mood. I would be getting an invitation for the christening any day now! I finished my cleaning as quickly as possible and started deciding on a suitable gift for Briar Rose.

The only problem was, nothing seemed quite right. Good fortune, fair face, wisdom…. They would all be bestowed by the other faeries before my turn came. That was one of the problems with being the 13th faerie, you always get last pick. I didn't get to choose my number.

It was really the luck of the draw. Unfortunately, I'd somehow acquired a bad reputation. Behind my back all the peasants and commoners called me the 'Faerie of Shadows'.

I tried to focus on the bright side though, a christening should be exciting and it would be nice to know that, even though I had a bad reputation, the King and Queen still valued my talents.

I quietly murmured an incantation and a huge, dusty and much-worn book levitated down from a high shelf. I plucked it out of the air and heaved it over to my large, polished, rosewood table. It thumped down with a satisfying thud, almost spilling my hot chocolate.

I waved my hand to stop it spilling and sipped it, scalding my throat in the process. I sat down and started leafing slowly through the book, searching for a suitable gift, feeling very pleased. Nothing exciting had happened to me for weeks and now I'd have an important job to do!

I spent several days searching through my many books and visiting my mother.

I had now checked my mailbox so many times that I had lost count and I still hadn't got anything from the Palace.

For the second time this week, I walked over to my crystal ball, this time much more leisurely, all the while considering a good gift for Briar Rose. Once again, I looked into my crystal ball and saw, to my astonishment, the Royal Banqueting Hall!

I looked closer and realised that it was packed with people and that, on the podium, was a crib with Briar Rose inside and the King and Queen behind it.

There were rows of soldiers standing to attention everywhere and to top it all off my 12 comrades were standing on the far side of the podium!

In other words the christening had already started and I hadn't been invited!

Now let me get this straight before you go jumping to any conclusions. Normally, I am a very placid person, but this was the limit, the straw that broke the camels back. I decided that even though the King and Queen hadn't invited me I would bestow a gift.

Before I changed my mind (as I am normally rather shy) I put on my ceremonial robes and collected my staff from its stand. I chanted my teleportation incantation and with a blinding flash of light I appeared in the middle of the throne room.

When I appeared, for some strange reason as soon as the queen saw me her face turned pale and the king started stammering some ridiculous reason as to why I hadn't been invited to the christening. I interrupted and started to bestow my gift.

"On her sixteenth birthday, Briar Rose will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and I…" but before I could even finish my generous gift, that interfering little faerie Vaera interrupted me saying, "Briar Rose shall not die, instead she shall sleep for a hundred years".

The king and queen gasped and ordered the soldiers to attack me. I tried to explain Vaera's mistake, but they didn't give me the opportunity. As the first line of soldiers rushed at me, I had no option, but to teleport back to my house.

Before I could do anything, a rumour spread around that the evil 'Faerie of Shadows' had cursed Briar Rose, but that a brave faerie called Vaera had saved her, and instead of dying, when the princess pricked her finger she would sleep for a hundred years.

I requested an audience with the King and Queen, but they refused. I asked many times and tried to tell whoever would listen that the rumour wasn't true, but the only one who would believe me was my mother. I even tried to reverse the curse, but I couldn't because Vaera had finished it.

Many years passed, and the Princess was almost 16th. The King had decreed that all the spinning wheels in the kingdom must be burnt. However, to further ensure that his daughter would not suffer the curse, he sent her to live with the Queen's mother for a short while.

Unfortunately, though, there was a very old woman who lived in a forest near the Queen's mother who had not heard that spinning wheels had been banned in the kingdom. She lived by herself and was half deaf and somehow, the Royal Messengers had missed her out.

My knowledge of this end of the story is sketchy; all I know is that, for some reason, the Princess went to Amae's house (or 'Old Amae' as she was often called). I believe that it was probably to borrow flour or sugar or some other trivial matter. Anyway, Briar Rose saw Amae's spinning wheel in the corner and was fascinated by it because she had never seen anything like it before.

Amae, seeing her curiosity, showed her how to use it. As you can probably guess, she pricked her finger and fell asleep.

When that meddling Vaera found out she decided that if the Princess was forced to sleep for a hundred years then the whole Kingdom should also sleep.

She cast a spell so that time halted. Everyone in the Kingdom just stopped whatever he or she were doing and fell asleep. Luckily, anyone who had the Gift wasn't affected so I stayed wide-awake. I searched high and low and finally I found the Book.

I had just started the Reversal Spell when, to my amazement, the whole Kingdom woke up! That's one of the problems of being immortal. You can easily loose track of time. I had been sure I still had around 10 years until the curse would end and I had thought that people would be grateful waking up 10 years early, but I'd obviously lost track of time.

This time however, I'd make the King and Queen listen to me! For the third time, I chanted my teleportation incantation and with that familiar blinding flash I was, once again, in the palace.

This time however, I appeared in the Counselling Chamber, where the King was animatedly arguing with the Royal advisor. The Queen, who had her back to me, was sitting timidly on the Kings right and the Princess on the left.

One of the courtiers looked at me nervously and cleared their throat pointedly. I wanted to speak before I got interrupted or, like last time, attacked so I quickly tried to explain.

It definitely wasn't my lucky day though because I hadn't seen Vaera sitting in a corner.

She cut in when I was in mid-sentence and started reminding the King of all the bad things I'd supposedly done. I would have been doomed if the Princess hadn't, for some strange reason that I'll never know, quietly remarked that if I promised not to do any magic why couldn't I talk to them?

I explained my whole story and eventually the King and Queen started to see that I was not so evil. Everything would have been fine if Vaera hadn't realised that if word got around everyone would blame her for the having to sleep for 100 years.

I went home feeling much happier, thinking soon everyone would know the mistake about me. Only my life could never be that simple, Vaera had to interfere again! She was always a very vain faerie so, to preserve her reputation, she cast a forgetting spell on everyone in the Counselling Chamber. They all forgot everything that I had told them and I was forced to travel to a far off land.

The Kingdom presumed I was dead and I turned into an old faerie tale, an old faerie tale that is all a lie.

I never found out why the King and Queen didn't invite me in the first place. I heard that it was something like a shortage of gold plates. Isn't that ridiculous? They could have used a different type of plate and then none of this nonsense would have happened. As for the Prince that supposedly married the Princess that's not true either. Half the time they make up all those sickly sweet 'Happily Ever Afters', which I am sick to death of.

In actual fact she didn't marry anyone and ruled single-handedly for many years. She was a fantastic ruler and was very kind and just. As for me, I'm starting again in a new Kingdom. Who knows? One day I might find a place where I truly belong.

Faerie Maefestus

5


End file.
